


The King and The Knight

by kjclfaller



Category: Banana Bus Squad
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Craig is a king, Depression, Gravity Falls References, Insanity, M/M, Seizures, and Tyler is a knight, and a bunch of stuff follows after
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 18:56:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7586077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kjclfaller/pseuds/kjclfaller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Craig isn't where he belongs. He isn't a king, but has been for a month. It only takes him trying to leave does he encounter a particular knight that may help him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The King and The Knight

Craig awoke from his bed and sat up. Looked around, scanned the room. The sun shone brightly through his window, bringing light into the dark chamber of a room. Craig sighed and retrieved his glasses from the bedside table. His tousled bed hair hung over his eyes as he continued to look around the room. Empty, dark, exactly like his soul. He brushed his bangs aside and jumped off the king-sized bed. As he dragged his feet over to the dresser, he stared at himself in the full-length mirror. 

His right eyebrow twitched slightly, his mouth turned in a disgusted kind of fashion. He glared at himself in the mirror and practiced speaking.

“Good morning, men. I'm Ki—,” Craig began awkwardly before his voice squeaked. He cleared his throat to buy some time, slapping his bare chest over the area above his heart.

“I can do this, I can do this,” Craig muttered to himself. He opened his mouth to repeat his words, before squeaking and closing it again. “I need. A shower.”

Craig scuffled over to the adjoining bathroom in his bedroom and turned on the hot water, before stripping his clothes and stepping into the shower area. He let the hot water cascade down his body, calming him. He started to think about the events that unfolded for the past few weeks. A month ago, he celebrated his birthday. Twenty-nine days ago, he knocked his head hard on the wall and earned himself a concussion. Three weeks ago, he woke up as royalty. And the last two weeks? Craig didn't know what the heck happened. All he knew was that he needed to get the hell out of there. 

For the past three weeks, he’d explored the entirety of the castle, the  _ entirety _ of the huge castle. The kitchen, the hall, everywhere. He had the freedom to explore the whole castle. He’d explored enough to know that neither his family nor friends lived with him. He’d asked the servants about his family; he didn’t have one at all.  And truth be told, the thought of living as a king without his family and friends surrounding him merely disgusted Craig.

And now here he was — a confused king in a huge castle, gifted with riches and royalty he didn't need. All he wanted to know was where he was and why did he come here. Who brought him here? How did this happen? When did this happen? Like hell did he know.

Craig switched off the shower and stepped out, before staring at his reflection once again in the bathroom mirror. He stared at himself for a few seconds before gripping his wet hair and biting back his lip to prevent a scream from coming out. His right eyebrow twitched again. He needed to find out how he ended up here. For all he knew, he woke up as a king with amnesia.

With each passing day, he remembered a trivial time of his life as a king but forgot a significant aspect of his parallel life. The more he stayed where he was, the more he forgot about his parallel universe. He was afraid he might stay too long to the point where he might forget he wasn’t from here at all.

He exited the bathroom and put on the clothes that had been spread out on the bedsheets for him. Craig sighed and wiped himself with a bath towel. All this kingly stuff was confusing. The first day he arrived he put on an orange leotard donned with shiny silver pegs for buttons and lined with silver white fur at the edges, dark blue trousers tucked into pointed-edged chocolate brown boots and a heavy red cloak made out of some sort of velvety material laced with similar white fur at the edges. Like many other kings, the kingly apparel was not completed without the crown, the large golden crown complemented with colourful gems — rubies, emeralds, sapphires — that fit perfectly onto Craig's head.

Craig dressed himself in his given attire and stepped out of his room, where there stood two knights to guard his room in case intruders were to sneak in. This was not the medieval times, where trespassers were sentenced to an execution immediately when caught. Nope, in this era things appeared more civil and professional, and definitely not like the medieval times.

Craig went downstairs where the knights and servants stood before him to greet him. His long blood red cloak dragged itself on the ground behind him, and it took all of Craig's dignity not to choke and run back up the stairs to vomit on his cloak. Outside, he maintained a professional demeanour. On the inside, Craig was biting a pillow so hard to keep himself from screaming that his teeth hurt.

“Good morning, King Craig!” The knights greeted with bravery and confidence. The servants bowed their heads in respect towards their king. Craig, on the other hand, was shaking like a leaf. What did he do yesterday when this happened? He coughed, didn't he? What would he do now? He can't possibly just—

Craig coughed, which then morphed into a fit of coughs, coughs that flamed his throat and hindered him from speaking. Of all the things he could have done, he took the coward’s way out. When one of the servants rose to help Craig out, he held out a hand as a sign of  _ No no, I'm good, thank you.  _ He remembered to maintain professional as a king, or at least until he could retreat to his room and destroy all the ceramic vases in his room.

Craig stopped coughing and looked on at his followers with no emotion, before nodding his head in return. “As you were,” he dismissed, before turning to one of the servants and calmly explaining that he was tired and had a rough night and  _ no Mr Servant Sir, I don't need an escort back to my room. _

When Craig finally returned to his room, he clipped off his cloak and threw it onto his bed, before running to the bathroom to splash water on his face. He was breathing heavily and his heart was pumping fast, and he felt so anxious and nervous and  _ goddammit, he needed to get out of here. _

Craig ran back to his room and didn't even make it onto his bed before he fell facedown on the floor and cried his whole heart out. He was too frustrated and missed his family, missed his real home and friends and can't take any of this kingly bullshit anymore. He was supposed to be a 21-year-old man with a steady ongoing career and spending time with his family and friends for his birthday, not a 21-year-old king surrounded by followers he didn't much care for. Even though he wished for his family back, he couldn't remember any of their faces. 

Maybe that's why he was sent here. To fulfil a new legacy as a king.

Well, forget that because Craig didn't favour any king royalty at the moment! He just wanted his life back! Craig slammed his fist into the floor and slapped himself. He was an optimist, but what's there to be optimistic about anyway?

Craig shifted his head to face the right, where a red hard cover book was sticking out from under the bed. Suddenly, Craig was intrigued and forgot all about his problems and went straight for the book. The book was in Craig's hands and had some kind of velvety texture to it. It wasn’t at all heavy to hold, and the sides of the book pages cast a reflecting gold aura. Craig’s hands fumbled for the pages of the book as he flipped it open to the middle. Inside the book contained strange symbols and ciphers he had never seen before, the other remaining words written in a strange language Craig didn't understand. Nonetheless, Craig was intrigued. Maybe this could be his ticket back home.

All he needed was someone to help him read this.

Craig went to the huge double doors of his room and pushed one open slightly. He poked his head out slightly and faced one of the guards. “Psst.. Hey, knight!” Craig whispered loud enough for the knight to hear. “Could you help me with something?”

The knight merely frowned and raised an eyebrow, before nodding his head and following Craig into the room. Craig shoved the book into the knight’s chest. “Can you read?” Craig asked. The knight raised an eyebrow. Nobody here was illiterate, so it just seemed like a stupid question to ask. The knight nodded and examined the gold letterings on the book cover.

“This is a magical spellbook, sir. It’s written right on the cover. Can't you read, sir?” the knight voiced. Craig sighed and took off his crown, before throwing it across the room and onto the bed. This startled the knight, made worse when Craig placed both his hands on the knight's shoulders.

“No, I can't. Not this language, at least. Which, in my eyes, is stupid, considering I can understand about six languages,” Craig admitted. The knight tensed up at his king’s openness towards him.

Craig sighed and let go of the knight, before throwing himself onto the bed. “I'm sorry, guy. I'm not a king. Have never been a king. I'm not from here, so I obviously don't know anything.”

The knight was confused. “‘Not from here’? What do you mean, sir?”

“I  _ mean _ ,” Craig emphasised. “I  _ woke up  _ one day having  _ absolutely no recollection  _ of being a  _ king. _ ”

“Well, I remember greeting a king every morning, but I don't remember his face or name. Maybe the former king was cursed and you were brought here to take his place,” the knight spoke, hoping this might help. Craig raised his head.

“Maybe you're right. Check for a page on curses,” Craig said. The knight flipped some more pages until he reached the desired page. There was a long line of spells to be used on the page. The knight searched for the one on cursing people.

“Here,” he pointed at the page. “The spell here is commonly used for erasing someone from existence,” — “commonly?” — “which can alter the course of time and replace said person with another.”

“‘How to curse a person: 1. Draw a triangle inside a square inside a circle on the ground. 2. Splash lemon juice onto the drawing. 3. Place a photo of the victim you choose to curse with an item of their belonging right next to it. 4. Repeat the following enchantment thrice — O! Drikdrakduk, shall all the drikdrakdruk fall on you for till doomsday with lilly kwijies, you'll be really gwinjering’,” the knight read aloud.

Craig raised an eyebrow. “What the hell kind of word is ‘drikdrakdruk’?!”

“A word that exists in our language. Deal with it, your highness,” the knight sarcastically replied. Craig put a palm to his forehead.

“Fine, fine. Is there a way to reverse the curse?” Craig asked the important question.

The knight nodded. “Yup, but we have to do this by sundown, or else the curse will be sealed for all eternity.”

“What?!”

“Just kidding, your highness,” the knight joked. “But you'd have to do it by at least sundown, or else you'd have to wait till the next morning to carry it out. If you do this too late, you might lose your memory of your past life and be stuck here forever.”

Craig gulped and stood up. “Well, we should get going then. You know where the horses are?”

The knight was clearly taken aback. “Yes, in the stable outside. What did you mean by ‘we’, sir?”

“‘We’ as in you and me, knight. I need someone to help me read, don't I?” Craig said, before retrieving his crown and setting it on his head. “I might keep this as a memento.”

The knight shook his head and followed Craig out the door. “I'm taking this knight to somewhere. We have to do something important,” Craig reasoned with the guards and servants, before gesturing for the knight to follow. The latter took a last minute retreat to the kitchen and returned carrying a satchel containing a thermos, a bottled water and the spellbook.

The knight showed the way to the stables and brought out the king’s horse. Craig stared at the animal in wonder. “How do I operate him?”

The knight laughed. “Just follow my lead, sir.” He hoisted himself up on his own horse and positioned himself properly. Craig imitated his movements. “Steering is—”

“Yeah, that I know. I took riding lessons when I was young,” Craig interrupted. “You might want to get rid of your armour first. You know, ‘cause it’ll be uncomfortable.”

The knight stayed silent for about seven seconds before getting down and stripping off his armour, revealing a layer of padding strapped over his casual long-sleeved shirt and jeans. He took off the padding before hoisting himself back up again. They began to move forward and away from the castle in the direction of the hills.

“You guys wear casual clothes under that?” Craig asked as they started to move. He thought all knights wore only padding and linen under their armour.

“Yes, sir. This isn't the medieval times, where we fight each other with swords and arrows. We have kings, but they are not driven by greed. We’re all modern here,” the knight spoke. 

“I guess I never knew that. The only kings and queens we knew about were in the movies, and those types were the medieval ones,” Craig voiced. The knight looked at Craig.

“You're not from here at all, are you? Are you from an alternate universe or something?” The knight asked.

“Maybe so. Which explains why I coughed violently when I had to greet the knights and servants. I didn't know what I had to do. So I basically chickened out,” Craig smiled sheepishly. “You look familiar, do you know that? Like, you give off that type of vibe, as if I've known you from somewhere.”

“I doubt it,” the knight waved it off, rolling his eyes. He stared at Craig’s broad shoulders for a long time before realising something.

“Why didn't you retrieve your cloak, your highness?” the knight asked.

“It's not important, is it?” Craig said nonchalantly. He examined the knight’s tall and lean frame. “What about you? You're supposed to stay in armour but took it off anyway.”

“Touché.”

“By the way, where are we headed?” Craig asked. The knight flipped open the book and read over the procedure to reverse the curse. “Green grasslands. At least to somewhere full of green and nature. It works more effectively there, sir.”

“Why do you keep calling me ‘sir’ or ‘your highness’? I told you I'm not a king. What's your name?” Craig asked.

“T-Tyler?” The knight replied, unsure. Craig reached out a palm.

“Nice to meet you, Tyler. I'm Craig,” Craig beamed. The knight firmly shook his hand. 

“So, tell me, why the horses?” Craig suddenly asked after a much uncomfortable silence. They were already halfway there from their destination.

Just as Tyler was about to respond, Craig fell off his horse and let out a shrill cry, startling the stallion only slightly. Tyler’s eyes widened in shock and he pushed himself off his own horse, before running over to Craig’s aid. Craig’s eyes were shut tightly, he was breathing hard, his heartbeat was racing. Distorted images of alternate versions of his life in his parallel universe and his life as a king clashed together to create a warped and twisted mental image in Craig’s mind. Craig was sweating rapidly, his body was shaking uncontrollably and violently. Craig let out a harsh, strangled scream, one which frightened the horses and even Tyler. Craig was having a terrible seizure and Tyler didn’t know what to do. Tyler tried to call out to Craig, tell him to ‘snap out of it’. Tyler had never experienced such a thing before. He was almost afraid he could not save Craig.

“Craig!”

Craig’s pupils dilated, and he coughed violently. He kept on coughing until he had to roll himself up onto his knees and cough out some blood. Tyler just stared at Craig in shock and fear.

“I’m okay, I’m okay… Tyler.. Do you have any water?” Craig sputtered, his hand over his heart. Tyler clumsily reached into the satchel and brought out a bottle of water. He handed the bottled water to Craig. Craig thirstily gulped at least three quarters of the water before screwing the cap back on.

Tyler kept on staring at Craig worryingly. Craig put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m fine, Tyler. Let’s continue forward.” 

Tyler nodded, unconvinced.

*****

Tyler gazed at his king, extremely concerned for his wellbeing. What had happened to him? What did he see? Tyler had so many questions to ask, but never dared to ask after that incident. He gazed up at the sky. The green hilltops from far away started growing bigger as they neared their destination. 

“We've arrived, Craig,” Tyler announced, eyeing Craig to see if said man was looking any better than he did before. As both men climbed off their horses, Tyler opened the spellbook and began drawing in the plain dirt with a stick.

As Tyler began collecting rocks to use for the reversing of the curse, Craig peered at the drawing. Tyler had drawn a big triangle surrounding a smaller-sized square, which surrounded an even smaller-sized circle. Tyler arranged the rocks to fill up the empty spaces in between the shapes.

“Hey, Craig. Catch!” Tyler called out, before splashing lemon juice at said man and tossing dirt onto his face. Craig glared.

“Really, Tyler? Really?” Craig was not amused.

Tyler held back a wheeze. He had his hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing too hard. “It's for the reversing. That's why I had a thermos with me. You look absolutely ridiculous!”

Craig simply rolled his eyes, but smiled. It was good to see the knight finally warming up to him. “Fine then. How do we reverse the curse?”

“‘You would need the person who replaced the cursed victim in the reversal of the curse. To find this person, they should be splashed with lemon juice and smeared slightly with dirt for a significant marking to appear’,” Tyler read from the book before grabbing Craig's jaw with one hand and examining his face. All of a sudden, a thin blue scar appeared on Craig's face through a stream of white light.

Tyler smirked, knowing full well that Craig couldn't see the scar which resulted in the latter's confused face. “Found it,” Tyler spoke before releasing his grip and turning to the book. “‘Once this person has been found, draw a circle inside a square inside a triangle on the ground. The replaced person should stand over this drawing while holding an item of the cursed victim's belonging. The spell to be used is TDRMQVI HSZOO ZPP GSV WIRPWIZPWIFP IVOVZHV GSV OROOB PDRQRVH UILN SRH TIZHK. It will have to be decrypted using a cipher before it can be used for the reversal.’ What the hell?” 

Tyler showed Craig the spell written in the book. “I can't read this! This must be a mistake!” Tyler said.

Craig examined the spell for a while. It looked weird, but maybe it was just written in a way to show it like that. Maybe the letters had to be scrambled. Maybe it would have to be decoded in some way.

Craig snapped his fingers. Yes, that was it. He had to use a cipher. “Do you have any paper, Tyler?” 

Tyler reached into the satchel and brought out a notepad and a pen. He was confused and didn't understand the spell one bit, but maybe Craig knew something he didn't. Craig began writing out the alphabet on the notepad, before rewriting the alphabet just below  _ that  _ in the opposite order. Tyler still didn't know what Craig was doing. 

“It's an Atbash cipher. It replaces the letters in a sentence with an opposing letter in an opposite alphabet. For example: A is changed to Z, B is changed to Y, and etcetera. This is how we decipher the spell,” Craig explained, his eyes shining in excitement. 

Tyler examined the letters written on the book before examining the ones on the notepad.  “So, T is changed to.. G? And D is changed to W, am I right?”

“Yes! So that way, we can fully decode the spell and use it for the reversal!” Craig exclaimed in excitement. His face was brightly lit up, like a child on Christmas Eve. Tyler chuckled slightly and shook his head.

“My king is a nerd…” Tyler mumbled to himself quietly before writing out the decoded spell. The original spell read, ‘GWINJER SHALL ALL THE DRIKDRAKDRUK RELEASE THE LILLY KWIJIES FROM HIS GRASP’. He handed back the notepad to Craig.

“So, I have to read this out while standing over the drawing and holding,” — Craig asked as he held up the king’s crown — “this?”

Tyler nodded as he watched Craig shuffle over to the drawing on the ground. He had a small smile on his face, though his heart slightly ached at the thought of parting with the smaller man. He had enjoyed his company dearly and almost didn't want him to leave so soon. Alas, Craig needed to be back to where he belonged, as did Tyler. 

“Craig,” Tyler voiced, catching Craig's attention. “You think we might know each other back on your earth?”

Craig shrugged slightly, as most of his past memories had faded away from being the new king. “May be, Tyler. May be.”

Tyler held out a hand as a sign of parting, even though the gesture pained him only slightly. Tyler didn't want Craig to leave, not after how much time they've spent together. Nor did Craig want that as well, as he ignored Tyler's outstretched hand and went in for a hug. This caught Tyler off-guard for Tyler froze slightly, trying to figure out what to do next, before wrapping his arms around Craig and enveloping him in a much deeper hug. 

“I'm gonna miss you, knight,” Craig muttered slightly. 

“Gonna miss you too, your highness,” Tyler responded. 

As both men let go of each other, Craig moved towards the drawing and stood over it. The sun casted a warm glow over the horizon, the sky tinged with hues of red, orange, pink and yellow. This was indeed the perfect setting to part.

“Gwinjer shall all the drikdrakdruk release the lilly kwijies from his grasp,” Craig whispered, staring at Tyler with a comforting smile on his face despite the stupidity of the spell. At this, the whole drawing and the scar on Craig's face began to glow a neon blue, before a man emerged behind Craig from a stream of white light cast by the rays of the sun. The strange man had on similar clothes to Craig's, but in a different colour scheme. Just as the man was about to speak, the drawing and Craig's scar began to glow a slight purple and emit a purple aura. 

The drawing glowed brighter and a stream of purple light cast around Craig, as if encasing him within a sparkly cage of light. Craig began to levitate, the crown set on his head levitating just a bit higher. Tyler continued to stare on in awe. Never had he witnessed such a thing happen right before his eyes. The rays of sunshine shone at Craig specifically, causing the purple light to change to white light. The white light from the scar and drawing shone brighter and brighter, before shining bright enough to blind a person and transport Craig to elsewhere. Before the light shone that bright, Craig managed to smile at Tyler warmly and waved at him.

Just as the light had dimmed to a more adjustable setting, Craig had vanished. All left in his place was the crown. 

Tyler and the strange man stared at the crown before the drawing had stopped glowing. Craig was gone. He was back home, back where he belonged. And that just made Tyler feel comfortable.

*****

Craig awoke from his bed and sat up. Looked around, scanned the room. The sun shone brightly through his window. Everything seemed more familiar than it should be. The king-sized bed he was met with that morning was replaced by a single bed. The room was a lot brighter than the one he saw that morning. This was his room. He was back home. He was finally back home!

Craig hopped off the bed and grabbed his glasses before whizzing out of the room. It was until he reached the kitchen that he realised his head hurt terribly. He put a hand to his temple and leaned on a chair slightly. His head was wrapped in bandage and throbbed slightly. Was all that a dream? Did he dream up that strange world of him as a king? He felt a hand rest on his shoulder. 

“Why are you out of your room? I told you to stay in bed,” a familiar voice assured. Craig's eyes widened. He recognised that voice.

“Tyler?” Craig whispered as he looked up at the owner of the hand. It was indeed Tyler. Craig immediately wrapped his arms around the taller man. Tyler was taken aback slightly before wrapping his arms around Craig.

“Happy birthday, Craig,” Tyler mumbled. Craig smiled to himself, knowing that this was his place. This was where he belonged. This was his home. 

And Craig was glad that Tyler was here. He was glad that Tyler was his knight.

**Author's Note:**

> Edit: okay can I just say that there are subtle Gravity Falls and Flashpoint Paradox references in here? Yes? No? If you're fans of either then I hope you manage to find them :)


End file.
